Los Angeles Teachers OK Contract

By the narrowest margin in union history, Los Angeles teachers have voted to ratify a new contract that will give them a 2% raise and more say in hiring and assignment decisions, union officials said Friday.

Teachers voted 54.05% to 45.95% to approve the contract, ending a months-long impasse that at one point had them refusing to supervise extracurricular activities, tutor students or do work outside their contract obligations in an effort to pressure Supt. Roy Romer and the Los Angeles Board of Education to settle the dispute.

Many union members attributed the closeness of this week’s vote to the power of newly elected union leaders who will take office July 1 and who have said the contract did not give teachers enough. In campaign materials, A.J. Duffy, the union’s president-elect, said any raise of less than 7% could be considered a pay cut because of cost-of-living increases.

When the contract settlement was announced last month, Romer called the 2% raise “a tight squeeze” given state budget problems, but added that it was fair and appropriate for teachers to receive the raises, which are retroactive to July and will cost the district about $80 million. The district will also pay $55 million to cover the increased cost of health benefits for teachers and retirees in 2005.

But Duffy urged union members to vote against the contract, saying he thought the district could afford to give teachers more than the 2% raises they had been offered.

At a news conference Friday, current United Teachers Los Angeles President John Perez called the vote “a vindication for the members. The members understood the issues that were before them.”

Still, he acknowledged that the closeness of the contract vote “represents a division in the membership.... I hope the new leadership will take that into consideration. They will have to mend some fences with the majority.”

Under the new contract, beginning teacher salaries will increase from $41,177 to $42,000, and standard pay for veteran teachers will grow from $72,247 to $73,691. In addition, the district has promised to retain teachers’ seniority when schools are reorganized; reduce the number of mandatory, after-school faculty meetings; and include union members in discussions on how teachers are trained and evaluated.

Romer also praised the results of the vote Friday. “I’m very pleased,” he said. “It means that we can now proceed with a cooperative and collaborative relationship with the union.”

That relationship, however, will be tested soon by the new union leadership, which has called for the union to take a more aggressive and activist stance in its negotiations with the school district.

Duffy said Friday that “the members have spoken. I abide by that.” But, he added, district leaders should note how many members voted against the contract -- and the dissatisfaction with district practices that number represents.

The union, he said, will “go after the district for the bloat and the waste and the bureaucracy they have a penchant for.”

Duffy said he would like to see district officials reduce the number of local administrative districts from eight to four or five. “And I’d like to see the number of [administrators] in those districts down to a bare minimum,” he added. Last year, in large part because of union pressure, officials trimmed the number of local districts from 11 to eight.

Board of Education President Jose Huizar said he expected the board to vote Tuesday to approve the contract -- the last step before teachers will see a raise in their paychecks. “The board is anxious to put closure to this,” he said.

The new pact, which covers 46,000 union members, will remain in effect through June 30, 2006. But the union and district will need to return to the bargaining table later this year to negotiate the funding of next year’s health benefits.

Huizar said he hoped that in the meantime, district officials would work with union leaders to ensure that the district receives the funding it was promised from Sacramento. More money from the state, he said, would mean the school district could “further support teachers.”